The Maison5 min read
Four winters restoring an old mas
How a seventeenth-century farmhouse below Gordes became Maison Emno: lime, stone, terracotta, and a great deal of patience.
When we first saw the house it had no roof over the east wing, a fig tree growing through the kitchen, and a courtyard full of old farm machinery. It also had thick stone walls, a vaulted cellar, and a view that stopped us in the lane.
Stone by stone
Almost everything was done by hand, in winter, when the valley's masons had time for us. The dry-stone terraces below the pool were rebuilt one stone at a time using the old technique of the bories, without mortar. The walls inside were finished in lime, which breathes and keeps the rooms cool in August.
What we kept
We kept the well in the courtyard, the three-hundred-year-old olive tree that now shades breakfast, and the vaulted cellar, which became the spa. We kept the original terracotta floors wherever they could be saved and had new tiles made in Apt to match the rest.
What we added
Eighteen rooms, each a little different, and a pool among the cypresses. Linen from Lyon, ceramics from Apt, and furniture from workshops in the Luberon. Nothing arrived in a catalogue box.
You can see the result in our rooms and suites, and taste it, we hope, at La Table.
